The Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility, aka “Banning Jail“, upgrades are expected to be finished next month, but until now Sheriff Sniff feared he would not have enough funds to hire these security and administrative personnel, thanks to a former $50 million county deficit.

Now, 45 sworn law enforcement personnel are expected to be hired to work at the prison, along with 49 non-sworn correctional deputies and 48 “classified” employees, including food service workers, clerks and accountants. .

Sniff also doubts that all the money in his new budget will actually be needed and he predicts that the new jail units will be fully operational in one year. The expansion includes 582 inmate beds lodged in three housing units that are 173,000 square feet in size.

Opening these new cells can’t come soon enough, said Supervisors Jeff Stone and John Benoit.  The two are referring to the impending early release of 40,000 convicted felons from state facilities  in compliance with a federal judicial panel’s mandate that California’s prison population be reduced for health reasons.

“We are going to have to house more dangerous criminals that we shouldn’t be responsible for housing in the first place.  We have to make our facilities function as prisons when they’re detention centers,” Stone added, alluding to expected re-offenders.

Sniff agreed, saying that law enforcement officials are preparing for a statewide increase in crime.  Currently, the county has 3,600 inmate beds available, compared to 6,000 in Orange County Jails. Some 3,500 prisoners were already released before the end of their sentences in 2008 because of overcrowding.